Police on Friday arrested a man in
connection with the recent murder of Zella Ziona, a transgender woman
of color.
Ziona, 21, was shot in the head
Thursday. She was found in a service alley next to a laundromat in
Gaithersburg, Maryland and rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was
pronounced dead roughly two hours later.
According
to WJLA, police arrested 20-year-old Rico Hector Leblond and
charged him with first-degree murder. He is being held without bond.
Investigators believe Ziona and Leblond
knew each other. They said the murder might have been motivated by
hate.
Jasmine Black, a friend of the
deceased, told local media that Ziona had only recently begun to
identify as transgender.
“She just wanted to embrace her life.
She wanted to show the world how to be transgender,” Black said.
Another friend, Barbie Johnson, called
Ziona “amazing.”